Pr. Paul Kubes, University of Calgary, Canada

Immunophysiology is a relatively novel concept that implies that the immune system is integrated into tissues and cooperates with other parenchymal cells to maintain homeostasis. Disruption of this exquisite machinery leads to inflammation. For example, alveolar macrophages migrate from alveolus to alveolus clearing debris and disruption of this process recruits neutrophils to induce acute inflammation. In liver, Kupffer cells reach out of their vascular niche and communicate with hepatocytes, endothelium and stellate cells. Fibrosis forms walls between Kupffer cells and other cells and causes these specialized macrophages to lose their contacts with other cells and as such lose their identity leading to recruitment of monocytes. Regardless of tissue, the immune cells contribute to homeostasis and their perturbation leads to inflammation.